Testing conditional independence via quantile regression based partial copulas

L Petersen, NR Hansen - Journal of Machine Learning Research, 2021 - jmlr.org
L Petersen, NR Hansen
Journal of Machine Learning Research, 2021jmlr.org
The partial copula provides a method for describing the dependence between two random
variables X and Y conditional on a third random vector Z in terms of nonparametric residuals
U 1 and U 2. This paper develops a nonparametric test for conditional independence by
combining the partial copula with a quantile regression based method for estimating the
nonparametric residuals. We consider a test statistic based on generalized correlation
between U 1 and U 2 and derive its large sample properties under consistency assumptions …
The partial copula provides a method for describing the dependence between two random variables X and Y conditional on a third random vector Z in terms of nonparametric residuals U1 and U2. This paper develops a nonparametric test for conditional independence by combining the partial copula with a quantile regression based method for estimating the nonparametric residuals. We consider a test statistic based on generalized correlation between U1 and U2 and derive its large sample properties under consistency assumptions on the quantile regression procedure. We demonstrate through a simulation study that the resulting test is sound under complicated data generating distributions. Moreover, in the examples considered the test is competitive to other state-of-the-art conditional independence tests in terms of level and power, and it has superior power in cases with conditional variance heterogeneity of X and Y given Z.
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